Abstract
Parasites cause a variety of diseases that affect the behavior and reproductive fitness of an individual. The study of animal self-medication as a science is relatively new. To date, research has classified health maintenance and self-medicative behaviors into four levels: (1) optimal avoidance or reduction of disease transmission; (2) the dietary selection of items with a preventative or health maintenance affect; (3) ingestion of a substance for the curative treatment of a disease or the symptoms thereof; and (4) external application of a substance to the body for the treatment or control of disease bearing insects. Of any species studied thus far, chimpanzees have provided the most details for level 2 and 3 behaviors, exemplified by such behaviors as bitter pith chewing and whole leaf swallowing behaviors, used in response to parasite infection. Both of these behaviors are behavioral adaptations that temporarily reduce parasite levels in the host.
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Huffman, M.A., Nakagawa, N., Go, Y., Imai, H., Tomonaga, M. (2013). Primate Self-medication and the Treatment of Parasite Infection. In: Monkeys, Apes, and Humans. SpringerBriefs in Biology. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-54153-0_2
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